This research project seeks to evaluate Peter Senge’s concept of the Learning Organization as a framework upon which employers can rely to address the unmet needs of employees in the context of the “the Great Resignation.” Senge's concept was formalized as an organizational structural model and leadership modeling tool in his The Fifth Discipline first published in 1990. The Learning Organization framework outlines five key disciplines that an organization can implement to strike a balance between organizational success and employee engagement, and which may be the solution to weathering stressful events such as the global pandemic we are currently experiencing. Senge’s framework has been widely integrated into managerial practices since its initial publication, but organizations can find it difficult to maintain its tenets when outside influences induce pressure on them.

We are seeing the impacts of the external influence of a global pandemic on organizations resulting in the Great Resignation. The COVID-19 pandemic provides a ripe context within which to assess organizational responses in the global job market as employees are leaving their current employers. Employees are stating they are leaving their jobs because their organizations are not providing transparency, trust, collaborative work environments, a culture of inclusion and belonging, nor career development and upskilling.

How might the Learning Organization framework aid organizations in their responses to disruptions in the workforce? Through a literature review and Causal Layered Analysis this project assesses the causes of the Great Resignation, and of employee needs, organizational stressors, and the benefits of a Learning Organization. This research project argues that when all five disciplines of the Learning Organization are embedded within the organizational culture of a given company, that company has built a resilience to external and internal stressors that can allow it to meet the employees needs in the workplace.